Currently, when healthcare related regimens, such as drug prescriptions, physical therapy, or behavioral changes, are prescribed by a healthcare service provider to a healthcare consumer, the healthcare consumer is typically advised about potential desirable, and/or undesirable, reactions and expected results at the time the healthcare regimen is recommended. Then, typically, the healthcare consumer is advised to contact the healthcare service provider if any defined conditions/symptoms arise, or to check in at a predetermined later date. Currently, once this information is relayed to the healthcare consumer, the healthcare consumer is largely left on their own to comply with the prescribed regimen, monitor any results, watch for possible reactions and/or danger signs, and generally make sure the prescribed regimen is applied correctly and that the prescribed regimen is having the desired effect.
The current process described above often puts a significant burden on the healthcare consumer and leaves the healthcare consumer feeling out of touch with the healthcare service provider. As an example, consider a working parent whose child has an infection that requires antibiotics. Further assume that, as is the often case with antibiotics, the medicine must be administered three times a day on a full stomach. In addition, assume there is a possibility that the child will have an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. In this example, the parent must not only remember to make sure the antibiotic is administered three times a day, after the child has eaten, but the parent must also monitor the child for signs of an allergic reaction, which may be subtle, and/or subject to misinterpretation. In addition, the parent must monitor the child to determine if the medicine is having any positive effect. As a result the parent may either feel they have been more or less left to fend for themselves by the healthcare service provider or the parent may end up making numerous, and often unnecessary, calls and/or visits to the healthcare service provider as they try “play” doctor and comprehend what the results of their monitoring mean/indicate. This situation arises largely because, as noted, once the healthcare consumer has left the healthcare service providers office, they are, for the most part, out of contact with the healthcare service provider with no efficient feedback mechanism.
The situation described above not only often results in an undue level of healthcare consumer anxiety, but it can also represent a significant burden on healthcare service provider staff who currently must often answer numerous calls from concerned and/or confused healthcare consumers. In addition, the situation above can result in missed, or incorrect, applications of a prescribed healthcare regime, missed indications of ineffective or incorrect prescribed healthcare regimens, and/or other missed opportunities to cure. Clearly this is a less than ideal situation for both the healthcare consumers and the healthcare service providers.